Return to the table of contents
Waterseeds
Beyond what my fingers know
There is little left of your skin,
Made numb by the fullness of youth
Beyond first youth.Over my shoulder
You swam naked in the tinctured
Starlit pool; the valley of suburbs
Sleeping. Light on water
On skin gave voltage to curves
And sex was neon oil blood
Beneath the wires. So today
The advertisement stirred me
To ask where you are now,
White jaguar, lover of juleps?

Twelve years in desks too small
For bloating wombs was not enough;
Sentenced to a ring from him
Who was not me who was not
There. Douse quick the fire of limbs
Again alone, the bull-breath nights,
And curl about your angel feet
In the polarized same valley.
But I am clear and must clearly
Wonder how long we can live,
Rabbit-eyes, sower of amaranth,
Beyond the first youth.

Steven Hawkins
College of Health Professions